_A.M. 2083. B.C. 1921._ From henceforward Abram and his seed are almost the only subject of the sacred history. In this chapter we have, ( 1,) _ God's call of Abram to the land of Canaan, Genesis 12:1._ (2,) _ Abram's obedience to this call, Genesis 12:4._ (3,) _ His welcome to the land of Canaa... [ Continue Reading ]
We have here the call whereby Abram was removed from, the land of his nativity into the land of promise. This call was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him and his family apart for God, in order that the universal prevalence of idolatry might be prevented, and a remnant... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will make of thee a great nation_ When God took him from his own people, he promised to make him the head of another people. This promise was both a great relief to Abram's burden, for he had now no child, and a great trial to Abram's faith, for his wife had been long barren; so that if he believ... [ Continue Reading ]
_In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed_ This promise crowned all the rest; for it pointed at the Messiah, “in whom all the promises are yea and amen.” Now, with what astonishing exactness has God fulfilled these promises, and yet how unlikely it was, at the time they were made, that the... [ Continue Reading ]
_So Abram departed_ He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. His obedience was speedy and without delay, submissive and without dispute. So should ours be to him who says, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me.”... [ Continue Reading ]
_They took with them the souls that they had gotten_ That is, the proselytes they had made, and persuaded to worship the true God, and to go with them to Canaan; the souls which (as one of the rabbis expresseth it) they had “gathered under the wings of the Divine Majesty.”... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Canaanite was then in the land_ He found the country possessed by Canaanites, who were likely to be but bad neighbours; and for aught appears, he could not have ground to pitch his tent on but by their permission.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord appeared to Abram_ Probably in a vision, and spoke to him comfortable words: _Unto thy seed will I give this land_ No place or condition can shut us out from God's gracious visits. Abram is a sojourner, unsettled, among Canaanites, and yet here also he meets with him that _lives, and s... [ Continue Reading ]
_And there he built an altar, and called on the name of the Lord _ Such, it appears, was his constant practice, whithersoever he removed. As soon as he came into Canaan, though he was but a stranger and sojourner there, yet he set up, and kept up the worship of God in his family; and wherever he had... [ Continue Reading ]
_And there was a famine in the land_ Not only to punish the iniquity of the Canaanites, but to exercise the faith of Abram. Now he was tried whether he could trust the God that brought him to Canaan, to maintain him there, and rejoice in him as the _God of his salvation_, when _the fig-tree did not... [ Continue Reading ]
_Say thou art my sister_ The grace Abram was most eminent for was faith, and yet he thus fell through unbelief and distrust of the divine providence, even _after God had appeared to him twice!_ “Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.”... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house_ We are not told particularly, in what way they were plagued; but, doubtless, there was something in the plagues themselves, or some explication added to them, sufficient to convince Pharaoh and his house that it was for Sarai's sake they were thus plagued... [ Continue Reading ]
_What is this that thou hast done_ What an ill thing: how unbecoming a wise and good man! _Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?_ Intimating, that if he had known that he would not have _taken her._ It is a fault, too common among good people, to entertain suspicions of others beyond wha... [ Continue Reading ]